Our Baptist Hospital Support Group
Dr. Michael Inman

A year and a half ago I attended my first brain injury support group meeting. There were some 15 to 20 survivors, friends and family members there, along with Diane Gottsponer who coordinates the meetings and myself as the new psychologist at Baptist Health. I wasn't sure what to expect, but members made me feel welcome, and soon the second Tuesday of the month, 6:00 PM, became a welcome routine. It wasn't until I recently "missed" two successive months that I realized I really did "miss" the meetings...and I began to understand what the group was about. Somehow I felt connected; I'd made friends; and I looked forward to seeing people I'd gotten to know through the group. In sharing their own very personal stories about their injury, recovery, and struggle to adjust to changes in their lives, I felt as though I knew many of the members on a deeply personal basis. The truth was, that in that process, the group had offered me "social support": in a new city where I didn't know anyone, a new job, and what for me was a new life.

When David Bolick asked if I'd write an article for the newsletter, I thought of the opportunity to let others know of the group...people who might not know it even existed. Or if they did, maybe hadn't yet found the courage to come to their first meeting. New social situations can be stressful, particularly if you don't know what to expect. I was reminded of a research finding that I'd known from years of talking with brain injury survivors, that more than half of survivors report a marked decline in their social network after their injury. The study found that at two years post injury, 57% reported feeling they had significantly fewer opportunities for social interactions and had less social support than prior to their injury. Four "themes" emerged:

1. Survivors felt they had fewer friendships and social support,
2. They lack opportunities to establish new social contacts and friends,
3. Survivors reported fewer leisure activities, and
4. Depression and anxiety were reported at high rates by survivors, even many years after their injury.

The researchers concluded it was important for both providers and survivors to establish and maintain a social support network. Certainly one way to accomplish this is through a monthly support group.

Why then are such groups so "rare"? For as I thought about our support group, it occurred to me that this was the first time in my 12 year history at four hospitals in three different states that there had been a brain injury support group! Even at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in DC there had not been such a group; or in Galveston, Texas; or in Lansing, Michigan. I came to realize that such groups were all too rare. I tried to find out how this group had gotten started, when so many other cities hadn't been able to establish or maintain such a meeting. I found out the group's history goes back more than 10 years!! So long, that even those who are involved don't know when it began exactly. Each tell the bits and pieces of the story they know, or have heard, like a well told legend. For now it remains steeped in mystery, but its purpose remains as important as ever...evidenced by its 10 year history.

Letting people know about the group, then, has become something of a mission for me, I guess. I offered to Diane Gottsponer to take over the mailing list for the group, each month diligently adding names of new folks who'd come; updating changes of addresses; and adding names of new survivors. We've even coordinated "our mailing" list with that of the Brain Injury Association of Arkansas, to make sure we hadn't "forgotten" anyone. Somehow it was important to make sure people knew of the group, were mailed a reminder, and most importantly felt "invited"; perhaps because the group had come to mean so much to me, too.

Through this short story, know "You are invited!" 6:00 PM, second Tuesday of every month, ground floor, Baptist Health Rehabilitation Institute (Interstate 630, Exit 7), Little Rock. If you want a monthly reminder sent each month, call me (Michael Inman at 501-202-7617) and I'll be happy to put you on our growing mailing list!